We’ve had a lot of these around lately. The Eastern Tent Caterpillar is a very common caterpillar  in the NorthEastern United States.  Their silky nests can be unsightly and they can do a lot of damage to the foliage in the area.  Every few years we get an infestation of caterpillars that is bad enough that they cause a nuisance and become eyesores.

Worst of all they don’t become beautiful butterflies, they become boring little moths that fly around at night.

We have a pretty normal quantity of caterpillars this year, although I’ve seen them in some very strange places.  I’m not a  fan of caterpillars in general but this one was just an interesting photography subject.  Adam’s been trying to train the puppy to eat them… with some sucess.

I’ve always heard about ticks.  I didn’t really remember ever seeing one until a couple years ago when I found a wierd bug crawling on my sweater which Adam identified as a tick for me. We pulled one off his mother’s cat that had dug in under the cat’s chin.  It was an adventure to pull that one out. Adam pulled one off himself when we lived in Fremont. It was still alive and started making threatening motions towards Audrey. I grabbed my cat and rushed her to a room far away from the bloodsucker.

My experience with ticks prior to my move to New Hampshire consisted of mythical creatures.  They were extensively discussed in my “Kids who want to be Veterinarians” summer camp when I was 9 or 10 years old.  And I developed a disgust for them then and there.

In the last couple days I have probably had to deal with ten Ticks.  And by “deal with” I mean “honey can you kill this tick for me”.  We have pulled two ticks out of the puppy and I’ve taken at least three ticks out of his hair (including a tiny deer tick, carriers of lyme disease). I had three ticks crawling all over my clothes yesterday, and Adam had a couple on his.  I still havn’t had to pull any out of my or the cats’ skin, but I’m constantly convinced that every little itch is a tick.

Oh and they don’t seem to die when slapped, squished or stomped on.  They are pretty much indestructible!

I just spent a pretty penny to get Frontline for the cats, and will get what the vet recommends for the puppy when he gets to a more convienient size, but is there anything I can do to keep the ticks off me? Is it just a high tick year? It’s silly that I can handle the mosquitoes and black flies, but the ticks make me want to run back to the city… and take my pets with me.

My Google Reader came up with a Post on the Garden Vines Blog about the Ruby-Throated hummingbird migration today.  There was a link showing a Hummingbird Migration Map.  I was pretty excited about last year’s map, I guess the little hummingbirds start showing up in New Hampshire around late April.  There’s already sightings in Southern Massachusetts.  And here I was convinced that I had plenty of time to get myself a hummingbird feeder.

Any recommendations for a nice looking hummingbird feeder that wont attract hungry bears?

I’m pretty excited about hummingbirds coming to my yard, my husband and I have always enjoyed eating a takeout dinner on the firetower at Pawtuckaway State Park, and part of the charm has always been the little hummingbirds coming to eat at the feeders.  We got to watch some of the social interactions between the little guys.  I’m pretty excited to get to watch them from my house… if I can attract them.  And of course try to get pictures of them too.

The map site is part of hummingbirds.net an excellent resource on hummingbirds of several different varieties, not just the ruby-throated beauties.

Baby moose, originally uploaded by mbarsalou.

This morning Adam called me for my daily “are you out of bed” call. I look across the street and standing there I see some gangly legs under a tree next to the pond. I’m thinking “Oh No, one of the foals got out”. Then I realised the legs were skinny even for a young horse. So the place across the street is a federally licensed zoo. I became concerned that perhaps it was a reindeer that had escaped. Then I realised what it was “Gotta go honey, there’s a moose in John’s yard, I gotta take pictures”. “Ok, be careful”.

At first the moose just happily stood around munching on the buds of the willow tree. And I snapped a bunch of pictures. From the side of the road, pretty far away.

Then the moose decided to get out of there before the evil geese he’d been reading about on my blog showed up. At this point I was back on my side of the road. She wandered around John’s driveway for a bit, acting a little skittish every time a car passed by. I was worried for her and she was getting a little close to me.

Then she crossed the road only feet away from me. Maybe she thought I was a crossing guard, but either way, I had no fear that she was going to bump into me or anything. Sorry for the blurry picture, but I was concerned for cars as well.

She then proceeded to hang out behind my house for a while just on the other side of our stone wall. I couldn’t get over how close she let me get. When I got too close she just very gently walked away. I hope she’s OK, she has a bit of a limp in her front leg.

As for the evil geese, they almost caused a crash this morning long after the moose was gone. They were IN the road hissing and flapping at cars that stopped for them. One car had to go into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid hitting someone who had been stopped by the geese.